Chun Liao was born in Taiwan. She came to Britain in 1991 and studied at Bath Spa University and later the Royal College, where she completed an MPhil research project in the School of Ceramics and Glass. Her pieces are thrown in porcelain with raw fired celadon glaze applied when the clay is bone dry, and fired once to achieve an intermingling of glaze and clay body. Chun makes the same shape again and again - a shallow flat-bottomed dish with straight sides. Some of the forms are pure and unbroken, others have been cut and pulled together with rivets, whilst others are torn and mended by rivulets of thick glaze trickled into the tear. A few pieces have molten speckles of metal, gold or silver, as a gesture towards decoration. In Chun’s works there is a fusion of East/West, she brings to her work her experiences of different countries and cultures. As she has said they are "collective memories of my life that fuse into one inspiration".

Glossary

  • Ceramics

    Clay based products produced from non-metallic material and fired at high temperature. The term covers all objects made of fired clay, including earthenware, porcelain, stoneware and terra cotta.

  • Glaze

    Vitreous coatings applied to pottery to make objects watertight and as a form of decoration. Also a glaze can be a thin, translucent or transparent coating applied to the surface of a painting to modify the colour tones. Glazes may also be applied on top of one another as a means of creating a sense of depth and translucency.

  • Metal

    Metal is a medium frequently used by artists to make art works - from sculpture to printmaking. Surfaces can display an array of colours and textures, and are capable of being polished to a high gloss; metal can be melted, cast, or fused, hammered into thin sheets, or drawn into wire.

  • Porcelain

    One of the three major types of pottery, the others being stoneware and earthenware. Porcelain is fired in the region of 1300ºC to produce a white vitrified and translucent body.